128 
REPORT—1854. 
diversity of form amongst the crania of even one people, extensive observation mill's 
us to perceive the general characteristic marks which appertain to them. These usually 
exist, and when duly elaborated, impart stability to our views. 2. If we regard the 
unity or diversity of origiu of the human race as one of the arcana of nature, en¬ 
shrouded in primaeval obscurity, whether wholly impenetrable or not, we are con- 
strained to admit that marked dissimilarities ham existed from the most remote permit. 
This must be regarded ns one of the established pustulates of our science, without 
which it could have no sure foundation. 3. Another equally essential is the law of 
permanence of ethnic forms; that the characters impressed upon races arc not train- 
mutable, but constant. This law has been the subject of much controversy, but the 
facts adduced against it appeal 1 too dubious, unimportant and few to shake its sta¬ 
bility ; a stability uniform with that observed in all the other divisions of nature, 
and not to be successfully assailed by the hypothesis of development. 
The best course to be pursued in the study of the ancient British skull i» to 
determine the normal form, and then to ascertain the usual deviations from [ ll ’"** 
simple method, which has been employed in the elucidation of other natural objects, 
will reduce the subject to ns great order as it admits of, and render description *n 
delineation easy to be understood. A knowledge of the general character of me 
British skull is not to be obtained from the examination of those belonging to <>“* 
tribe only, but from a comparative investigation of crania derived from many. n 
this view, it is believed the Green-Gate-Hill Barrow skull exhibits the true 'W ,,r 
form of the ancient British cranium. Its most marked distinctive features are, > 
shortness of the face, which is, at the same time, rugged with elevations ami im¬ 
pressions, the indications of wild passions operating on the muscles of express > 
zygomatic arches not uuusually expanded; the nose short, projecting at »»»* 
too great to be graceful; immediately above its root rises an abrupt P r0,,|l ^ J 
occasioned by the largo frontal sinuses, which passes on the sides into thc er 
superciliary ridges, and produces a deep depression between the nose and fore » 
giving to the profile a savage character; the osseous case for the brain upon 
whole not large, rather than small ; the occipito-fronlal diameter somewhat c * 
traded, and parietal diameter good. It ranges with the orthognathic cram, 
those having upright jaws, and inclines to the brochy-cephalic division. , y 
the uncivilized character, but from the mass of the brain it has evident 
to a capable savage, possessed of power, and fitted to profit by contact witu me 
other races. wc 
Having thus enumerated the chief peculiarities of the typical British cranium, 
may advert to its leading aberrant forms, which admit of being arranged in a s i 
intelligible method. They will be easily understood as the abbreviated, or " ' 
brachy.cephalic ; the elongated, or dolicho-cephalic t the elevated, or, to con , 1 
terms, the aero-cephalic j and the expanded, or platy-cephalic. Notwit * - 
these aberrant forms, the whole Berics bears the impress of so many similar 
as to show that it constitute* one natural group. The dolicho-ccjrholic ha* u 
supposed to indicate an " Allophylian ” or " pre-Celtic " race, but it may pm B J 
e regarded as more properly a family peculiarity in some cases, am! acci . c 
others in which it has been met with in tLe same Barrow, and in a position 
the interment to be equally ancient, with a ealvutium of the normal form• 
has been laid upon the circumstance Lhat it has occurred in Chambered . 
resembling the famous one or New Grange. The best iuformed antiquaries*^ 
to these Barrows an extremely earlv date ; but that they have altogether p ^ 
simpler and ruder sepulchral cairns, and were erected by a distinct autec |tte j 
ppear to stand in need of much confirmatory evidence before they can 
with tolerable confidence. i corpof'* 1 
th r e se P ulc |>ral Barrows of our native land we find the invaluiMj 
®. nc,ei ? t race * especially the bony casket which contained the ^ 
r£v ll ° nsl f tWcn racn in all ages; and, if these relics be carefcgr^t 
Britons rCaS ° n t0 h ° pe We may learn much more of thc cthnology of th 
